Juliette's Final Litter

This is ICAN Juliette's 5th and final litter. These Lab-Golden cross pups are a repeat breeding of ICAN's Musical and College litters, with black Lab ICAN Jammer as the sire. This litter is the J&J litter in honor of Juliette and Jammer - all temporary puppy names start with "J". The plan is for ICAN to take over the rearing of the litter at around 4 weeks of age. Hopefully all these pups will become assistance dogs in training.

The pups have turned into enchanting, cuddly pups who are busy playing with each other and exploring their world. JJ weighs 5 lbs 4 oz and the other pups ranged from 5 lbs 13.5 oz (Journey) to 6 lbs 4 oz (Jules). The pups have learned to eat soaked kibble from a bowl and taking a few tentative laps of water for the water bowl. Juliette is not spending much time with the pups, just jumps in the pen to nurse and then leaves - the pups are only interested in one thing when Juliette is around, that being milk. When people are in the pen, they eagerly climb into our laps and appear to thoroughly enjoy interactions with humans. We have started gradually expanding their world with short outings on the laminate and tile flooring outside of the puppy pen. Too cold to be going outside. The pups are off to prison tomorrow to be lovingly reared by the ICAN handlers for the next 4 weeks. I plan to have them back at 8 weeks for a week or so.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Lots of changes for the pupsters. A couple of days ago, I bumped out the puppy pen so that I could add the big litter box. Since then, the litter box has been well used. The pups have transitioned from canned food to soaked kibble. Currently doing a combination of hand feeding and bowl feeding, teaching the pups how to eat from a bowl. I have added a water bowl to the puppy pen, and I have seen a few pups dunk their face into the water or take a tentative lap. Mostly they just walk through it. Riley has resigned from her nanny duties and returned home. Having her help out with the feeding of these pups was a huge help, especially with the wide weight range. So easy to just give the smaller pups to Riley to feed. Juliette is still being attentive, although spending most of her time out of the pen. She is reluctantly starting to let the other dogs around her pups, although interestingly, she was very accepting of Riley going into the puppy pen. The pups are nursing standing up and now have teeth to help them hold on - poor Juli! The pups thoroughly enjoy human attention and are starting to respond to the Puppy, Puppy, Puppy call to come. We have started "invasive petting", body handling and cradling on their backs. Doing lots of talking and different voice tones and today added popping bubble wrap to the sounds they are hearing. I need to remember to leave the radio on when I leave for work. The pups are also starting to get some out-of-the-puppy-pen experiences such as walking on the laminate floor in the bedroom where the puppy pen is. Yesterday, Jambo weighed in at 5 lbs and this morning, Jules and Journey joined the 5 pounder club.